THREE POINTS - JUST!

NEWS Friday 3rd June 2011, 11:56pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs struggled to beat league leaders Workington in a match with several talking points, but eventually took the three points when Matthew Wethers won a two man heat 15 to make the final score 48-41.

The Comets were without exciting Dane Peter Kildemand at the start of the match, and incredibly lost Tomas Topinka on parade when he collided with Kenny Ingalls' mechanic. That meant the visiting reserves took 14 rides, from which they scored 15 points.

Of course Monarchs have a key man missing too in Kyle Howarth, and they are no nearer to plugging the gaps in the reserve berths. A second place in heat 2 for Lee Dicken was all that he and Ashley Morris had to show for 8 rides, and this is throwing a lot of pressure on the top five. With Kalle Katajisto having a bad night (till his final ride), that meant that even the win was in doubt for much of the match.

Workington led, and deservedly so, by 28-26 after 9 heats. Thankfully the Wolbert-Wethers pairing was very much on song and took their third 5-1 in heat 10 to put Monarchs ahead.

Both Cook and Tully then took advantage of rerun heats to win the next two races, and Kevin Wolbert combined with Cook to score 5 in heat 13.

It was looking good at least for the win, and at last Kalle Katajisto produced a decent ride in heat 14 to win and clinch victory.

We still needed to take an advantage from heat 15, in which James Wright didn't appear. This was run three times ? the first one stopped with Monarchs on a 5-1 when Lawson appeared to delay rising from the track, the next one stopped after a bold move from Wolbert for which he was excluded after Harrison fell, and finally a win for Wethers.

Wolbert's exclusion divided opinion. He clearly did not hit Rusty Harrison, but did he make it impossible for Rusty to turn? That seemed to be the referee's view.

To be fair you would have to say that Comets were unlucky not to get anything from the match, but equally Monarchs again pulled out all the stops towards the end to take the points.

Full Result Details